Arrival in New Zealand 5/1/2011

New York or New Zealand we are always the last drop off with the Shuttle Bus!

We have lost a day, it has been spent travelling. 

We got to the airport early, Sue took us when she went to work, it’s amazing just how quickly the time passed to boarding the flight.  The flight went well, it seemed to pass so quickly, 2½ hours when we have been doing an 11 hour flight is like a bus ride HA!

New Zealand is 2 hours ahead of Australia so it was 9.30 pm when we checked into the hotel.

It is quite windy but not cold hopefully tomorrow the weather will be good for us to start our visit in Auckland.

End of part one Sydney! 4/1/2011

I can’t believe that the first half of our Sydney stay has come to an end. 

Today we just stayed in the area where Suzie lives.  No beach as the weather was cloudy and a bit chilly.  We did a walk along the seafront morning and afternoon, we even found a cannon.

I had to pack the suitcase for our trip to New Zealand, a job I really dislike.

Pino made a lasagne for our evening meal, today it is Suzie’s birthday, we had a nice bottle of spumante to go with it.

Bollicine! Bollicine!

A Day in the City. 3/1/2011

Today we took the train into the city. 

First stop was to visit the Hyde Park Barracks Museum – Convict Sydney.  This is where all the British convicts were sent between 1819 and 1848. 

We tried out the convict hammock and I even looked up to see if any Cowards had been sent over, there was just one! It was very interesting, I love to see all the personal belongings that have been found from that epoca.

After it was a walk to the Sydney Opera House, we had only seen it from the ferry up until today. 

 

Then it was onto The Rocks where they say Sydney began, now a famous shopping area.  We were very lucky as today was a holiday here and the week-end market was open.  We bought some warm macadamia nuts, plain, chilly and honey coated yummy!!!!

We found a lovely bar where they were cooking extra long sausages on a BBQ served up in a long French roll with caramelised onions and cheese, now that’s what I call a hotdog! You will all have gathered by now that we are not going hungry!!!!!!!



We had hoped to do the walk over the harbour bridge but it started rain so we made our way home.  We will try do that when we return from New Zealand.

Fun in the sun. 2/1/2011

This morning was spent at the beach, we love the sun, beach and nothing to do but read, sunbathe and of course take a nap!

After lunch Suzie drove us to Centennial Park, such a beautiful place, lots of lovely trees, plants and lakes.  Here in Sydney it’s water, water everywhere, wonderful. 

We then went to see the house that we stayed in with Suzie 36 years ago, what memories we have of that time.  There is a cemetery there that has the best view in the world.

First day of 2011 – 1/1/2011

The weather was very hot today, there were lot’s of people at the beach, I think most of them had just stayed from the night before.

Sue’s mum Joan invited us out to lunch at Drummoyne Sailing Club.  It was so nice to eat with  a view of the sea and yachts.  We just couldn't resist the fish and chips once again.

Pino and I went  to the beach for a swim and a bit of fresh air, it was late afternoon and there were still lot’s of people doing a BBQ, we think it’s a wonderful life in Australia!

Once again Happy New Year and we hope it will be a good one for you all!

Last day of 2010 - 31/12/2010

I’m really not looking forward to the 1st January and do you know why?  It will mean the countdown to returning to Rome L

Today we took the train to Hawkesbury River to meet up with Sue’s cousin Kim and her husband.  When we arrived at the station and the train was about to depart we heard someone shout “Hold the train” a lady was running to get the train and they actually waited for her.

Kim was there at the station and she drove us to a lovely picnic area where her husband Ivan had held a table and BBQ for us.  Kim bought some lovely food for us to eat, Lamb and sausages to cook on the BBQ and lots of other goodies and a nice bottle of white wine as well. It was such a pleasant lunch with not many people in the area we were in.

After everything had been cleared away and packed into the car we drove down to the river where we did a lovely ferry ride on a really old ferry boat, it was built in 1948.  

The  skipper of the ferry was such a nice man he said he always sings the Beatles song – Here comes the sun – because the ferry’s name was Sun.  At one point he said for me to have a go at steering the ferry then walked off and left me to it, everyone thought it was really funny when the skipper walked to the back of the ferry to do something while I was at the helm.

We had a wonderful day!

When we returned to Suzie’s house it was a quick shower and change because we were going to her friends house in Neutral Bay to see the New Year in and also the fireworks of Sydney Harbour.  
Here they do 2 firework displays one at 9 pm and one at midnight, the 9 pm is for the children so they can see a firework display then off to bed so mum and dad can have their fun.  On the drive to where Sue’s friend lives we had to pass by the beaches and there were lots of people having BBQ’s.

To see the Harbour fireworks people had been camping out since yesterday.  The weather was just glorious after a very hot day there was a lovely evening breeze.

As with all of Sue’s friends we were made so welcome and the food was great.  We feel like we haven’t stopped eating HA! 

Although we weren’t at the Harbour itself we had a great view of the firework display they were magnificent!

So now we are in 2011.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Day two of Calalla Bay 30/12/2010

We woke up to see red, blue and green Rosella’s a beautiful Australian bird drinking from the water bowl that Karen leaves out in her garden.  The nature here is absolutely fantastic!

Breakfast was of fresh mangos, pineapple, strawberries, cherries, kiwi and banana; mangos are now my passion!

We drove to Huskisson Bay to see another beautiful beach.  Everything here is so clean, the sea crystal clear and the sand is like fine grains of gold. 

A funny thing happened while we were walking around a Magpie kept swooping down to try and take off  Pino’s hat, he obviously thought it was another bird entering his territory. 

There was no time for swimming today as we had to get back to Sydney.

Driving back I had to have a towel covering my arm to stop it getting sunburnt.  On the way back we stopped in a town named Berry that makes lovely brick oven bread, of course we had to get one of those, we bought a really nice soda bread.

Back home to a nice glass of cold wine mmmmm………